On August 21, 1944, a flight of TBM Avengers out of Quonset Point Naval Air Station were flying in formation over southern Rhode Island when one aircraft grazed its wing against the elevator of another sending it down over the Saunderstown section of North Kingstown. The plane’s wing struck the roof of a vacant house belonging to Mrs. Mabel Barton before it crashed nose first into the side yard and exploded. Flaming gasoline showered the home and set it ablaze. All three crewmen aboard were killed instantly.

The three men who lost their lives were:

Walter Lee Miller Jr., 21, of Morton, Texas.

Joseph Camel Beam, 20, of Pottstown, Penn.

Donald Joseph Finkler, 19, of Cleveland, Ohio

The other aircraft involved in the accident made it safely back to Quonset NAS.

At the time of the crash, an 8-year-old boy was playing in his front yard nearby the Barton home, and suffered minor burns as a result of the flaming gasoline.

One eyewitness told reporters that after falling out of formation, the pilot had raced the motor in an effort to gain altitude.

A second house in which an elderly invalid woman was residing was also set ablaze. She was rescued by two Coast Guardsmen, Meredith E. Dobry, and Daniel Caruso, who happened to be in the area at the time of the crash.